Small businesses are the heart of America’s Main Street.
But given today’s dynamic business environment and the variety and volume of small businesses that exist in it, it can be difficult to get a sense of how they’re doing. compensate They account for 40% of the U.S. economy and 99.9% of all American businesses.
Still, Intuit, which offers tax preparation software and other tools for small businesses to manage their finances, including TurboTax, QuickBooks and Credit Karma, is a big player. and Mailchimp has a unique perspective in the small business sector.
and The company: Q3 2024 Revenue The company said in a statement on Thursday (May 23) that this important business unit is performing well.
“We’re seeing improved profitability for small businesses on our platform, which is a good sign. Small businesses are becoming healthier,” Intuit CEO Sasan Gudarji said on a conference call Thursday.
Intuit’s small business and self-employed group revenue grew 18% to $2.4 billion, while its online ecosystem revenue increased 19% to $1.8 billion.
“The strength of our small business franchise is being driven by our online performance. … In a somewhat uncertain macro environment, our enterprise online performance is seeing a lot of interest and usage as it helps them manage their cash flow and their business,” the executive told investors.
Importantly, Intuit executives emphasized to investors that its use of artificial intelligence (AI) is proving to be an important tool in its approach to the small business sector.
read more: Intuit Adds Qualified Finance Team Members to Small Business Group
Digitizing end-to-end operations
According to financial results, revenue from Intuit’s online services for small businesses increased 20% due to growth in payments, payroll and Mailchimp services.
The company’s QuickBooks Online Accounting revenue also increased 19% for the quarter due to customer growth, higher effective prices and a mix shift, while revenue across its international online small business ecosystem increased 12% excluding the impact of currency fluctuations.
Following the strength of its small business division, the company updated its full-year 2024 segment revenue outlook for its Small Business and Self-Employed group to $9.481 billion from $9.467 billion. growth An increase of about 18% previous Growth forecast: 16% to 17%.
and Intuit is focused on digitizing the small business experience end-to-end, and is also leveraging one of the most modern digital innovations of the 21st century: generative AI.
“The age of AI is one of the most significant technology shifts of our lifetimes, and our strategy to become a global, AI-driven expert platform is delivering significant benefits to our clients and great results across the company,” said CEO Goodarzi. statement“I am proud of our innovation and performance, and given our momentum, I am raising my revenue, operating profit and earnings per share outlook for Intuit for the current fiscal year.”
That’s because the AI algorithm Rationalization It simplifies bookkeeping by automating data entry and transaction classification, which reduces the manual burden for business owners, minimizes errors, and ensures up-to-date financial records. For example, QuickBooks features: AI-Powered Classification that learns from past behavior makes the process more accurate over time.
read more: Intuit integrates TurboTax with Credit Karma and QuickBooks
Intuit is Generative AIIn November, we announced AI-powered innovations across our TurboTax Online and TurboTax Live products and services. These solutions enable customers to self-file or get assistance with their taxes. or The company said at the time that it would hand them over to experts.
In January, Intuit integrated TurboTax with two other products, Credit Karma and QuickBooks, in an effort to streamline the tax-filing process for individuals and businesses. Small and medium-sized enterprisesThe new integration brings together TurboTax’s tax knowledge engine with filers’ personal and financial data that already exists in Credit Karma or QuickBooks.
As PYMNTS has previously covered, some smaller businesses, including freelancers and the self-employed, stand to benefit the most from automated, AI-driven bookkeeping and accounting solutions.
Non-traditional career paths like freelancing teeth Individual entrepreneurs are beginning to realise the importance of investing in the infrastructure that supports their work. Josh GreenCo-founder and CEO of Coworking App grooveHe said this in an interview with PYMNTS published in February.
“People Technology stack It revolves around itself in many ways: financial management, supplier management through CRM, sales pipeline, etc. [this] “What we’re building is part of the human infrastructure,” Green said.
So Intuit executives stressed that they, too, are focused on playing.
Still, Intuit shares fell single digits after the close due to the company’s weak fourth-quarter outlook, even though its third-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations.
